Thursday 24 November 2011

Hurrah! Quest Atlantis 5.1. is up and running!

 Quest Atlantis is an international learning and teaching project that uses a 3D multi-user environment to immerse children, ages 9-15, in educational tasks.


At the core of student activity with QA is the completion of Quests. A Quest is an engaging curricular task designed to be educational and entertaining.


Students and teachers conduct rich inquiry-based explorations through which they learn particular standards-based content, and at the same time develop pro-social attitudes regarding significant environmental and social issues.


 And now we can welcome Quest Atlantis 5.1. The  QA upgrade is now completed!

This was their first upgrade in over two years as well as their first server transfer! 

 If any minor issues come up they ask that you fill out one of their support tickets (http://atlantisremixed.org/#59)
 as soon as possible so that they can address it, and you can get on your way!

The Teacher PD has also been upgraded to include new information and experiences so that teachers are better prepared to support the curriculum for students. 



They have redesigned the Teacher Training Unit for new teachers and created a shorter, "refresher" version of this unit that is available for any experienced QA teachers who would like to see the changes we've implemented in pedagogy and research.


 The QA team believes that all of their returning teachers will find something new and fascinating in this refresher course.


 Completion of this new "refresher" version is not required in order to continue assigning and supporting the QA content as you've always done. These new trajectories will be activated if you click on the teleport link to Teacherville and/or attempt to teleport through the the hub arch to the right of the bridge. Once you've teleported, talk with Cam, and depending upon your experience with QA, he will help direct you in correct trajectory!


Have fun in QA!! 
If you would like to learn more about the Quest Atlantis program, visit their website,www.QuestAtlantis.org.

1 comment:

Gord Holden said...

Yes, it's faster, cleaner, and more exciting than ever. But QA is now ARX (Atlantis Remixed). This new upgrade is significant in what it does for improving things for Mac users, but this is nothing compared to what will be happening in April when the graphics move to being handled by the Unity program. The preview is gorgeous. My students already have a history of uninstalling their commercial gameware, since they are too busy learning how to save Atlantis and improve things in their world and mine. Given the quality of ARX, one can only imagine the impact that government support would have. Even having the support of school district administrators would be "nice." Wonder what they have against students being engaged and motivated to learn? Too foreign a concept?

If you're not familiar with this program, do yourself and your students a favor and check it out.